Actor Abbas Aboelhassan made a virtual appearance with Amr Adeeb on his show “El Hekaya“, where he explained his side of the story against Dr Bassem Samir harassing him, as well as other men.

Abbas Aboelhassan explained how his relationship with Dr Bassem Samir started 35 years ago, and he alleged that he was caught assaulting a developmentally disabled worker, harassed him several times, including in an elevator where Aboelhassan ended up hitting him.

In his interview, Aboelhassan stated that he was provoked to speak up after see Dr Bassem Samir’s billboards. Yet, he was encouraged to do so after witnessing the #metoo movement in Egypt — especially after the Ahmed Bassem Zaki case.

Abbas Aboelhassan wasn’t playing the victim, nor was he in any way ashamed of what happened to him.

Aboelhassan was speaking up for his, and other men’s right. He was normalising speaking up about sexual assault, he stood against all the toxic masculinity and proclaimed his right.

While we can go on and on about Aboelhassan’s appearance with Amr Adeeb — who, by the way, was a very fair and encouraging host and was surprisingly very respectful — Dr Bassem Zaki’s lawyer joins the show with a phone call, and boy was it something.

The lawyer first started thanking the police and congratulating them on the National Police Day.

Okay… A bit brownnose-y, but it’s cool.

He then proceeded to tell Amr Adeeb how he could have invested the program’s time on talking about El-Sisi.

Look, I don’t personally know El-Sisi, but I can guess that locking up a serial harasser and rapist might be of importance to him? I don’t know, just a wild guess.

This lawyer also kept shaming Aboelhassan, claimed there are no other victims, and questions why didn’t Aboelhassan hit Samir when he harassed him.

The lawyer claims that the whole ordeal is blackmailing, only because he’s been working as a lawyer for 41 years, and he knows.

It’s worth noting that Dr Bassem Samir, issued a statement on his clinic’s Facebook page, condemning the accusations against him, and described them as attempts to blackmail him and his family.

I understand a lawyer’s job is to defend his client. I get it. 

With that said, attacking the accusers is one of the lowest sorts of “defence” a lawyer can sort to.

What’s worse is that he’s simplifying the whole ordeal and says “why didn’t he hit him?” which Aboelhassan allegedly did anyway.

How is hitting someone a replacement for getting his legal rights from him?

Moreover, how is it that a lawyer who supposedly works for 41 years makes people hate his client even more in a public opinion based case?

Honestly, this whole thing just left me in confusion and stress. For what it’s worth, we need to give some love and respect for Abbas Aboelhassan for what he’s doing. 

We also want to apologise for having to deal with this.